In-line maintenance liquid distributors for fluid pressurized systems are known in the art and are used, for example, for thawing out frozen air lines in compressed air systems, such as air brake, air dryer and/or pressured air tank systems generally found on tractor trailers, public busses, train cars and the like, as well as in stationary industrial applications. Clogged air lines often occur in fluid pressurized systems exposed to freezing temperatures due to the accumulation of moisture which condenses into water within the supply lines and air-operated devices in the system. Such liquid distributors of the prior art generally comprise a main reservoir or storage tank provided with an inlet port, an outlet port and a screw on lid through which a maintenance liquid, such as an alcohol based liquid, or the like, can be poured in to fill the tank. The ports are provided with fittings for engagement between the air supply lines and the network of air operated devices.
In use, in a typical application such as an air brake system on a vehicle, an alcohol based maintenance liquid in the distributor is dispensed throughout the fluid pressurized system, thus thawing and removing any accumulated ice deposits. Preventive maintenance can be achieved by adding an alcohol based maintenance liquid in the liquid distributor at regular intervals, which flushes away any accumulated moisture in the system, thus avoiding the possibility of dangerous brake failure due to ice up.
Typical prior art devices are, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,804,013, to Wilson (issued Feb. 14, 1989), U.S. Pat. No. 5,293,904, to Wood (issued Mar. 15, 1994) and U.S. Pat. No. 1,336,905, to Hunzicker (issued Apr. 13, 1920).
While these prior art devices can generally fulfill the main objective of distributing a maintenance liquid into a fluid pressurized system, they also offer one, or more, of the following disadvantages:                a) the operator has to release the fluid pressure from the system, prior to filling up the distributor with a maintenance liquid;        b) it is usually not possible to select a specific section of the fluid pressure system in which a maintenance liquid would be most effective to solve, for example, a fluid line clogged with ice deposits;        c) they generally comprise a bulky reservoir that cannot be conveniently installed, for example, within the cab of a tractor trailer or in a confined space within a fluid pressure system of a stationary industrial application.        
Against this background, there exists a need for a new and improved liquid distributor. It is a general object of the present invention to provide such a liquid distributor.